Windows

macOS

Linux

• AppImage

New user interface

Instruments and parts

Inspector

New playback and VSTi support

Engraving improvements

Cloud storage

Other changes

Entering score information

Entering notes

Adding items from the palettes

Making adjustments in Properties

Inserting and deleting measures

Exporting your score

Saving your score

Setup

• Windows
• NVDA
• JAWS
• Narrator
• macOS
• Linux

Working with the user interface

Working with your score

Menu bar

Home tab

• My account
• Scores
• Plugins
• Learn

Score tab

Publish tab

Scrolling

• Mouse wheel
• Scrollbars
• Keyboard

Element navigation

Navigator

Timeline

Views

• Page view
• Continuous view (horizontal)
• Continuous view (vertical)

Zoom

• Zoom in
• Zoom out
• Status bar zoom controls
• Restoring 100% zoom

Find/Go to

• Navigating to a numbered measure
• Navigating to a numbered page
• Navigating to a numerical rehearsal mark
• Navigating to an alphabetic rehearsal mark

Overview

• Meta labels
• Instrument labels
• Meta rows
• Main grid

Meta elements

Basic interactions

• Selecting a measure
• Selecting multiple measures
• Drag selection
• [Shift] selection
• [Ctrl] selection
• Clearing a selection
• Meta values selection

Scrolling

• Standard scrolling
• [Shift] scrolling
• [Alt] scrolling
• Dragging

Labels interaction

• Rearranging meta labels
• Collapsing the meta labels
• Hiding instruments

Zooming

Context menus

• Meta labels context menu
• Meta rows context menu
• Instrument context menu

Overview

Instruments

• Choose instruments
• Adding instruments
• Changing order of instruments
• Removing instruments
• Create from template

Additional score information

• Key signature
• Time signature
• Tempo
• Measures
• Title and other text

Changing instruments after score creation

Overview

Entering notes

• Selecting a start point
• Entering note input mode
• Selecting duration
• Selecting pitch
• Selecting pitch using the computer keyboard
• Selecting pitch using the mouse
• Selecting pitch using a MIDI keyboard
• Selecting pitch using the virtual piano keyboard

Entering chords

Entering rests

Accidentals

• Selecting an accidental before entering a pitch
• Adding an accidental after entering a pitch
• Adding courtesy/cautionary accidentals

Ties

See also

Overview

Entering notes and rests in multiple voices

Editing notes and rests in multiple voices

• Adjusting rests
• Hiding or deleting rests
• Positioning rests
• Changing voice of existing notes
• Combining voices into chords

See also

Accessing alternative note input methods

Rhythm only

Re-pitch

Real-time

• Real-time (metronome)
• Real-time (foot pedal)
• Real-time Advance shortcut

Insert

Inserting measures

• The Properties panel
• Note input toolbar
• Menu bar
• Inserting measures with keyboard shortcuts

Deleting measures

• Remove empty trailing measures

See also

Selecting a single element

• Notes
• Chords
• Overlapping elements

Selecting a list of individual elements

• Selecting multiple elements manually
• Selecting similar elements automatically

Selecting a range of measures and staves

• Selecting a range by dragging
• Selecting a range by clicking
• Selecting a range using the keyboard
• Special range selections

Excluding elements from a range selection

Overview

Making changes in note input mode

• Changing duration in note input mode
• Changing pitch in note input mode
• Replacing notes and rests in note input mode
• Deleting notes in note input mode
• Moving notes in note input mode

Making changes in normal mode

• Changing duration in normal mode
• Changing selected notes to a specific note value
• Increasing or decreasing the duration of a selected note
• Doubling or halving all note values in a range selection
• Changing pitch in normal mode
• Deleting notes and rests in normal mode
• Removing notes and rests and their associated time
• Adding ties in normal mode
• Changing voice in normal mode
• Moving selected notes into another voice
• Exchanging the contents of two voices

See also

Accessing the commands

Copying a range

Copying a single element or list of elements

Moving elements

Swapping a selection with the clipboard

Repeating a selection

Copying a selection to multiple staves

Paste half/double duration

Duplicating individual elements

See also

Overview

Accessing the palettes panel

Adding palette items to your score

• Items applied to individual score elements
• Items applied to ranges
• Items applied to full measures

Expanding and collapsing palettes

Searching and navigating the palettes

• Search
• Navigation

Accessing more palette items

Adding more palettes

See also

Accessing the Properties panel

Global settings

• Show
• Score appearance

General settings

• Visible
• Auto-place
• Cue size

Playback settings

Appearance settings

• Leading space
• Measure width
• Minimum distance
• Offset
• Snap to grid
• Arrange
• Color

Saving and restoring default settings

Changing the position of elements

Changing the shape of elements

Working with lines

• Changing the range of a line
• Creating diagonal lines
• Editing line text

See also

Opening a part

Closing a part

Creating custom parts

• Reveal instruments in default parts
• Create a new part
• Choose which voices appear in each part

Applying styles to parts

Renaming, duplicating and deleting parts

Exporting and printing parts

Navigation

• Page navigation
• Score navigation

Note input

• General
• Duration
• Pitch
• Tablature

Selecting

Editing

• General
• Duration
• Pitch
• Notation
• Manual adjustment

Text

• General
• Formatting
• Lyrics
• Chord symbols, Roman numeral analysis, Nashville numbers, figured bass

Other score elements

Score setup and formatting

File Operations

User interface

• Playback

Overview

• Accessing the panel
• Adding instruments
• Deleting instruments
• Changing the order of instruments

Instrument settings

• Hiding/showing instruments
• Renaming instruments
• Replacing instruments

Adding and configuring staves

• To add a staff to an existing instrument
• To add a linked staff to an existing instrument
• Configuring a staff

Hiding empty staves

• Hiding all empty staves
• Excluding specific staves from being hidden

Temporary staves

Cutaway staves

Ossia

Other invisible measures

Implode

• Combine notes from multiple voices in a single staff into one voice
• Combine notes from multiple staves into multiple voices on a single staff

Explode

• Copy passage of single notes to multiple staves
• Separate passage of chords into constituent notes

Adding an instrument change

Working with instrument changes

• Removing an instrument change
• Re-labelling an instrument change
• Instrument changes in the mixer
• Changing staff type

Adding a staff type change

Setting staff properties

Overview

Staff properties

Advanced style properties

• Template (all staves)
• Standard and Percussion staff options only
• Tablature options only
• Fret Marks tab
• Note Values tab

Part properties

• Instrument
• Names
• Usable pitch range
• Transposition
• Strings and frets

Adding brackets

Editing brackets

• Changing bracket type
• Changing bracket span

Deleting brackets

Customizing bracket appearance

Overview

Setting the initial time signature for your score

Adding a time signature change to your score

Deleting a time signature

Controlling the visibility of time signatures

Creating a custom time signature

Adding a local time signature for a single staff

Time signature properties

• Appearance
• Beam Groups

Time signature style

Stem direction

• Default stem direction
• Flipping stem direction

Changing stem length

Creating stemless notes

Stem and flag properties

Stem and flag style

See also

Controlling which notes are beamed

• Setting the default beaming for a time signature
• Changing the beaming for selected notes

Controlling the appearance of beams

• Changing the angle of a selected beam
• Creating a feathered beam

Beam properties

Beam style

Overview

Regrouping rhythms

See also

Creating tuplets

• Simple tuplets
• In note input mode
• In normal mode
• Consecutive tuplets
• Custom tuplets
• Nested tuplets

Changing the display of tuplets

Tuplet properties

Tuplet style

Adding double and other special barlines

• Changing barline type for all staves
• Changing barline type for a single staff
• Adding mid-measure barlines

Changing barline length

• Extending all barlines in a staff
• Extending selected barlines in a staff
• Creating partial barlines
• Creating barlines between staves only (Mensurstrich)

Barline properties

Barline style

See also

Showing and hiding measure numbers

• Showing measure numbers automatically
• Showing measure numbers manually
• Hiding measure numbers

Changing the measure number sequence

• Excluding a measure from the count
• Altering the numbering of a measure
• Resetting measure numbering for a new section

Changing the position of measure numbers

Measure number properties

Measure number style

See also

Measure rest

Multimeasure rest

• Enabling and disabling multimeasure rests
• Breaking multimeasure rests
• Multimeasure rest properties
• Multimeasure rest style

See also

Creating a pickup measure

• Specifying the pickup duration during score creation
• Converting a measure into a pickup

Creating non-metered measures

• Inserting notes and rests
• Using a keyboard shortcut
• Using Insert mode
• Joining measures
• Splitting a measure

See also

Opening and using the dialog

Staves

Measure duration

Other

See also

Setting the initial clef for a staff

Adding or changing a clef

• Add/Change a start clef
• Add/Change a mid-measure clef

Delete

Controlling the visibility of clefs

• Standard clefs
• Courtesy clefs

Clefs and transposition

• Using octave clefs
• Using different clefs for transposed and concert pitch

Clef properties

Clef style

Overview

Setting the initial key signature for your score

Adding a key signature change to your score

Adding a local key signature for a single staff

Selecting a key signature for a single staff

Replacing an existing key signature

Deleting a key signature

Controlling the visibility of key signatures

Key signatures and transposing instruments

• Open/Atonal key signature

Creating a custom key signature

Key signature properties

Key signature style

• Format→Style→Page
• Format→Style→Accidentals
• Format→Style→Measure

See also

Overview

Transposing with keyboard shortcuts

• Transpose chromatically
• Transpose diatonically
• Transpose by an octave

Using the transpose dialog

• Transpose Chromatically
• To transpose chromatically to a specific key:
• To transpose chromatically by interval
• Transpose Diatonically

Working with transposing instruments

• Transposed and concert pitch
• Setting the interval of transposition
• Controlling enharmonic spelling

Overview

Adding an octave line to your score

Octave line properties

• Style tab
• Text tab

Octave line style

Changing notehead direction

Changing notehead shape

Sharing noteheads between voices

• Notehead sharing rules
• Change offset noteheads to a shared notehead
• Shared noteheads in tablature

Alternative notehead systems

Adding pitch and velocity information to notes

Notehead properties

Adding an ambitus to your score

Changing the range of an ambitus

Ambitus properties

Manually changing the enharmonic spelling of notes

Automatically respelling all notes in a selection

• Respell pitches

Adding articulations to your score

• Toolbar
• Articulations palette
• Keyboard shortcuts

Articulations playback

Articulation properties

Articulation style

Adding dynamics to your score

• Dynamics palette
• Custom dynamics

Changing playback of dynamics

Dynamics properties

Dynamics style

Types of hairpin

Adding a hairpin to your score

• Lines palette
• Keyboard shortcuts

Changing appearance of hairpins

• Range
• Height
• Set at angle
• Other adjustments

Changing playback of hairpins

Hairpin properties

• Style tab
• Text tab

Hairpin style

Adding a slur to your score

• Adding slurs in normal mode
• Method 1
• Method 2
• Adding slurs in note input mode

Multi-voice and cross-staff slurs

Changing appearance of slurs

Slur properties

Slur style

Types of pauses

• Fermata
• Breath mark
• Caesura

Adding a pause to your score

Changing pause playback

Pause properties

Pause style

Adding an ornament to your score

• Add an ordinary ornament
• Add an ornament line

Adding accidentals to ornaments

Ornament properties

Ornament style

Arpeggios

• Adding an arpeggio/strum to your score
• Adjusting the height of an arpeggio/strum
• Creating multi-voice or cross-staff arpeggios
• Multi-voice arpeggios
• Cross-staff arpeggios
• Changing playback of arpeggios
• Arpeggio style

Glissandi

• Adding a glissando to your score
• Editing range of a glissando
• Changing appearance of glissandi
• Changing playback of glissandi
• Glissando properties

Bends

• Types of bends
• Adding a bend to your score
• Changing appearance of bends

Types of grace notes

Adding a grace note to your score

• Add grace note with keyboard shortcut
• Add grace note from palette

Multiple grace notes

• Sequential grace notes
• Grace note chords

Editing grace notes

• Change duration
• Change pitch

Changing playback of grace notes

Grace note style

Types of tremolo and rolls

• Single note tremolo
• Tremolo between notes
• Buzz roll

Adding a tremolo to a single note

Adding a tremolo between notes/chords

Changing appearance of tremolos

Overview

Adding a line to your score

Adjusting a line

Types of lines

• Guitar-related lines
• Tempo lines
• Staff and System Text lines
• Trill lines
• Standard lines

Line properties

• Style tab
• Text tab

Line style

The Symbols palette

• View
• Search

Adding symbols to your score

• Add a symbol
• Add to other symbols
• Reposition symbols

Adding repeat signs to your score

• Simple repeats
• Multiple ending repeats

Changing playback of repeat signs

Changing appearance of repeat signs

Repeat properties

Repeat style

Adding voltas to your score

Changing appearance of voltas

Changing playback of voltas

Volta properties

Voltas style

Types of jumps and markers

Adding a jump or marker to your score

Changing appearance of jumps and markers

Changing playback of jumps and markers

Jump and marker properties

Jump and marker style

Adding a measure or multi-measure repeat to your score

Measure repeat properties

Measure repeat style

Turning repeat playback on and off

Unrolling repeats

Types of pedal markings

Adding pedal markings to your score

Creating pedal changes

Pedal properties

Pedal style

Creating cross-staff notation

Changing appearance of cross-staff notation

Adding accordion symbols to your score

Adding a fretboard diagram to your score

• Chord symbols linked to fretboard diagrams

Creating a custom fretboard diagram

• Finger markers
• Alternative notation styles

Fretboard diagram appearance

Fretboard diagram properties

• General (tab)
• Settings (tab)

Fretboard diagram style

See also

Adding a bend symbol to your score

• Apply a bend
• Edit bend
• Adjust bend height
• Reposition bend

Adding a tremolo bar symbol to your score

Adding a slide to your score

• Add a slide
• Edit properties
• Adjust start and end points of a slide

Adding a barre line to your score

Adding hammer-on and pull-off symbols to your score

Notating harmonics

• Standard staff
• Tablature
• Staff/Tablature pairs

Notating guitar fingering

Overview

Types of tablature staves

Adding a tablature staff to your score

• Add tablature using the New Score dialog
• Add tablature using the "Add or remove Instruments" dialog
• Change an existing staff from standard to tablature

Creating paired standard and tablature staves

• Create paired standard/tab staves using the New Score Wizard
• Create paired standard/tab staves using the Instruments dialog

Computer keyboard entry

Mouse entry

Selecting note duration

Period tablature notation

Editing tablature notation

• Changing the pitch
• Moving the fretmark to a different string
• Changing the duration
• Crosshead/Ghost notes

Changing tuning

Adding or removing strings

• Add a string
• Delete a string

Mark unfretted string “open”

Change number of instrument frets

Changing tablature staff type

• Change staff type from Instruments panel
• Change staff type from Staff/Part properties

Customizing appearance of tablature

Overview

• Types of percussion staves
• Adding a percussion staff to your score

Entering notes and rests in percussion staves

• Mouse entry using the Drum input palette
• Using keyboard shortcuts
• Using a MIDI controller
• Using the on-screen piano keyboard

Introduction

Customizing a drumset definition

• Selecting a sound
• Defining the note
• Name
• Noteheads
• Other properties

Saving and loading drumset definitions

Diddles

Pedal lines

Rolls

Sticking

Adding a mensural time signature to your score

Using mensural note symbols

Working with non-metered music

Working with Mensurstrich

• Adding barlines between staves

Displaying note values across measure boundaries

See also

Filling a range with beat slashes

Creating rhythmic slash notation

• Accompaniment rhythms on the staff
• Accent rhythms above or below the staff

Customizing appearance of staff lines

Customizing appearance of generated elements

Customizing appearance of notes

Changing staff type mid-score

Overview

Adding text to your score

• Add text from a palette
• Add text from a menu
• Add text using a shortcut

Editing text

• Keyboard shortcuts
• Special characters

Types of text

Overview—levels of formatting

• Text style
• Text object properties
• Character formatting
• Formatting hierarchy

Applying text properties

• Apply to a text object
• Apply to characters

Setting style defaults

Selecting different text styles

Position

Overview

Adding staff text to your score

Adding expression text to your score

Adding system text to your score

Repeating system text on other staves

Staff and system text properties

Staff and system text style

Overview

Adding a tempo mark to your score

• Using metronome markings
• Using text markings

Changing appearance of tempo markings

Changing playback of tempo markings

• Metronome marks
• Tempo text
• Tempo change lines

Repeating tempo markings on other staves

Tempo properties

Tempo style

Overview

Adding lyrics to your score

• Entering syllables
• Entering a melisma
• Entering multiple verses
• Entering lyrics onto rests
• Special characters within lyrics
• Elision slur
• Escaping characters (that cannot be normally typed while entering Lyrics)

Editing existing lyrics

Delete lyrics

Entering lyrics above the staff

Changing verse number of lyrics

Copying lyrics

• Copying lyrics within MuseScore
• Copy to the same verse
• Copy to a different verse
• Copying lyrics to other programs

Lyrics properties

Lyrics style

Types of fingering

Adding fingering to your score

• Adding fingering from a palette
• Adding fingering using a keyboard shortcut
• Adding fingering using the menu

Adjusting position

Changing the appearance of fingering

Fingering properties

Fingering style

See also

Overview

Adding chord symbols to your score

• Entering a chord symbol
• Navigation commands
• Chord symbol syntax
• Editing a chord symbol
• Entering Roman numeral analysis
• Enter RNA
• Examples of RNA
• Entering a Nashville number

Aligning chord symbols

• Using the Style menu
• Using the Properties panel

Transposition of chord symbols

• Transposing instruments
• Transpose dialog
• Capo fret position

Changing Spelling of Chord Symbols

• Chord Spelling Systems
• Automatic Capitalization

Changing appearance of chord symbols

Changing Playback of Chord Symbols

• Enabling and disabling playback
• Customizing playback
• Generating chord voicings onto a staff

Chord symbol properties

Chord symbol style

• Appearance
• Spelling
• Positioning
• Playback

Overview

Adding figured bass to your score

• Entering a figure
• Text format
• Digits
• Accidentals
• Combined shapes
• Parentheses
• Editing existing figured basses
• Navigating by note, beat, or measure
• Duration
• Entering continuation lines

Figured bass properties

Figured bass style

Figured bass keyboard shortcuts

Overview

Adding a rehearsal mark to your score

• Manual placement and naming
• Automatic placement and naming

Using measure numbers in rehearsal marks

Resequencing rehearsal marks

Finding rehearsal marks

Repeating rehearsal marks on other staves

Changing appearance of rehearsal marks

Rehearsal mark properties

Rehearsal mark style

External links

Overview

Adding a header or footer to your score

Using metadata

Changing how headers and footers are displayed

Header and footer properties

Header and footer style

Overview

Adding text blocks to your score

Changing the appearance of text blocks

Text block text properties

Text block text style

Definitions

• Staff
• Grand staff
• System
• Frame
• Margin

Default position

Auto-place

• Vertical collision avoidance
• Horizontal collision avoidance
• Vertical alignment
• Disabling auto-place

Manual adjustment

Manual alignment

Page settings

• Page and margin sizes
• Staff size
• Other settings
• Actions

Style settings

• Horizontal spacing
• Vertical spacing
• Music margins
• Distance between staves within systems
• Distance between systems

Staff/part properties

Features

• System breaks
• Layout stretch
• Horizontal frames
• Keep measures on the same system

Tasks

• Placing fewer measures on a system
• Placing more measures on a system
• Changing the relative spacing of measures within a system
• Creating space between measures
• Creating space at the beginning or end of a system
• Adjusting the width of the final system
• Group measures

Features

• Page breaks
• Spacers
• Vertical frames
• System dividers

Tasks

• Placing fewer systems on a page
• Placing more systems on a page
• Adjusting the spacing on sparse pages
• Adjusting space between specific systems
• Adjusting space between specific staves

Adding frames between or after systems

• Text frames
• Adding text
• Vertical frames
• Adding text
• Adding images
• Size
• Position and alignment of content
• Spacing

Adding frames between measures

• Adding text
• Adding images
• Size
• Spacing
• Other frame properties

See also

Adding images

• Frames
• Other elements

Image properties

Overview

• Features
• Time and key signatures

Adding section breaks

Section break properties

• Pause
• Instrument names
• Bar numbers

Overview

Playback commands

• Start/stop
• To play back all the instrument parts
• To play back selected instrument parts only
• To stop playback
• Rewind
• Loop
• Metronome
• Play position and tempo

Other commands

• Enable MIDI input
• Play repeats
• Pan score automatically
• Enable count-in

Opening the mixer

Mixer controls

Audio FX and sounds

• To load a VST plugin
• To disable a VST plugin
• To remove a VST Audio FX plugin
• To replace a sound plugin

See also

Install a SoundFont

• Drag and drop installation
• File directory installation

Uninstall a SoundFont

A note on the Zerberus player and SFZs

Installation via Muse Hub

Using Muse Sounds in MuseScore

Available sounds in Muse Sounds

• Choir
• Strings
• Brass
• Percussion
• Keys
• Harp

Overview

Adding a capo marking to your score

• To a single staff
• To a staff / tablature pair

See also

Overview

Adding a swing or straight marking to your score

Changing swing playback

Introduction to VSTi Plugins

Enabling, disabling, removing and replacing VST plugins

Overview

Opening a score

• File → Open
• File → Open recent
• Home tab → Scores

Import file formats

Saving a score

• Save to your computer
• Save to the cloud
• Name
• Visibility
• Never
• Always
• Every x saves

Overview

Exporting your score

File formats

• Graphical formats
• Audio formats
• MIDI format
• Score formats
• Customizing export settings

Overview

Cleaning up an imported score

Preparing a score for export

Overview

Changing score properties

Adding new properties

Accessing project properties in your score

Overview

Creating a MuseScore account

Saving only to Musescore.com

Publish locally saved scores

Visibility in score manager

Overview

• Change language
• Update translations
• See also

Overview

Theme and Colors

Fonts

Overview

Toolbars

• Showing and hiding toolbars
• Rearranging toolbars
• The Play toolbar
• The Note input toolbar
• The Status Bar

Windows and Panels

• The Score Window
• Docking and undocking Property, Instrument and Palette panels
• Customizing contents of panels

Overview

Templates

• Saving your score as a template
• Creating a score from your template

Style files

• Saving style settings for your score to a file
• Loading style settings into your score from a file
• Setting a default style for your score

Adding palettes

Hiding and deleting palettes

Changing the order of palettes

Customizing palette contents

• Adding elements from the master palette
• Adding elements from your score
• Moving elements between palettes
• Deleting elements from palettes
• Resetting palettes

Saving and loading palettes

Palettes menu

Palette properties

Overview

Creating a new workspace

Deleting a workspace

Switching between workspaces

Changing workspace settings

Sharing workspaces

Overview

Defining a shortcut

Resetting and clearing shortcuts

Importing and exporting shortcuts

General

Appearance

Canvas

Note input

MIDI device mapping

Score

I/O

Import

Shortcuts

Update

Advanced

Overview

Managing plugins

• Installing a new plugin
• Enabling and disabling plugins

Running a plugin

Pre-installed plugins

Overview

Learn

Forums

Issue tracker

GitHub

Mastering MuseScore

Overview

Reverting to factory settings from the menu

Reverting to factory settings from the command line

• Windows
• macOS
• Linux

Installation issues

Score issues

Display issues

Sound issues

Printing issues

Keyboard Map

Navigation

• Page navigation
• Score navigation

Note input

• General
• Duration
• Pitch
• Tablature

Selecting

Editing

• General
• Duration
• Pitch
• Notation
• Manual adjustment

Text

• General
• Formatting
• Lyrics
• Chord symbols, Roman numeral analysis, Nashville numbers, figured bass

Other score elements

Score setup and formatting

File Operations

User interface

• Playback
• Accessibility
• Other

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